


Kitty's Cat

by ElleF



Category: Elsewhere University (Webcomic)
Genre: Cat, Faeries - Freeform, I love this webcomic and i've always wanted to write something for it, I want to meet some fae, Kitty - Freeform, Minor Character Death, Tree Fae, Violence, but also she kinda sucks so eh, even if I get fucked up by them, evil fae, fae, got some tree bois in here, might fuck around with some fae just to feel something, stuffed animals, that's kinda fun, the f word, this quarantine is making me Restless, tiger - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23678734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElleF/pseuds/ElleF
Summary: Kitty couldn’t believe she had lasted four and a half years without ever interacting with The Fair Folk, only to be stolen away the day before her graduation.~Kitty has carried her stuffed cat around with her since she was 5 years old, even throughout college at Elsewhere University. She was always treated differently because of it, but one day it just may save her life.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 137





	1. Chapter 1

It was unusual to carry a stuffed animal around with you at college, but, then again, Elsewhere University itself was unusual. She earned the nickname “Kitty” during her first dorm floor meeting the Sunday before classes started, after she carried her old, ratty, stuffed cat with her throughout the entirety of the campus tour that seemed to go on for far longer than the small campus should need.

It was lucky she had earned her nickname so early, her RA told her.

“It’s best to never answer to your real name while you attend this school,” her RA said cryptically. “And, no matter how much people tease you for carrying around that animal,” here the RA gestured to her kitty, “never put it down. You never know what might pick it up.”

So Kitty took her stuffed cat to class with her every day. And when she began making friends, she took her cat to their library study sessions and their after class picnics on the grass. They always left some grapes out for the crows: a safe way of saying thank you. Kitty slept with her cat, of course, and, when she showered, she made sure to put it on the chair in the stall next to her folded towel.

Kitty heard the whispers from her friends, about the not-people in the swimming pool and the library trips that turned into searches that lasted years before the student came out, no older than they had been when they were lost. She also heard tales of the forest, and she knew she was supposed to keep her pockets full of salt and leave out coffee creamers for Them, but she couldn’t help it if she forgot sometimes. It was hard enough trying to pass her classes when her Biology teacher seemed to change every day and her American History professor seemed to have too much of a knowing glint in their eye when they went over the Civil War.

Her friends that weren’t directly in her major dropped off throughout the years, murmuring to themselves about how weird it was that she was never Taken, never even Touched, even though she never followed the rules, and she was an English major with an emphasis on Poetry to boot. Kitty never dated; she could never find someone who didn’t find her stuffed cat a little off-putting, or at least that’s the excuse an otherworldly attractive senior with strangely slitted eyes and a few too many teeth gave her after they had been talking for a few weeks her junior year. She sat in nearly empty poetry classes as everyone always seemed to be absent for some reason or another. If her professors found it odd that she was often the only one in her classes, they never commented on it. Kitty was just happy she got the one-on-one assistance with her poetry.

Kitty may have wanted adventure when she was a freshman, learning Elsewhere’s tricks with the same awe she felt when she watched _Peter Pan_ for the first time, or read _Percy Jackson_. Over the years, however, as her poetry friends began to be Taken one by one and only occasionally Returned, she began to feel grateful for what she had. She couldn’t afford to lose another friend to Them, so she stopped trying to make new ones. Kitty kept her head down and went to class and studied in her room that used to have a roommate and never once put her stuffed cat down.

She watched from her cat’s side as her four and a half years (she missed the deadline to register for a class one year because she needed permission from a department head who had disappeared for a week along with their entire building) slid by, and, suddenly, it was time for her to graduate.

Kitty walked around the campus one last time the day before graduation, saying goodbye to the buildings she had called home. She rounded the corner of the English building, intending to go up the steps and sit on one of the older-than-time benches in the foyer, when she ran smack into someone.

“Oh! I am so sorry,” Kitty exclaimed from her new position on the ground. She looked up into the eyes of-

“It’s fine,” Jenny, Kitty’s freshman year RA, replied, her eyes darting around wildly, now noticeably more haunted than they had been four years ago.

“What are you-” _doing here_ , Kitty had been about to say, since she knew Jenny was supposed to have graduated almost two years ago, but Jenny cut her off.

“What day is it?”

“Uhh… Thursday?” Kitty began to stand up slowly, automatically reaching for her stuffed cat and cradling it with her left arm.

“No, no,” Jenny shook her head wildly, “I mean, what’s the date? What year is it?”

“Oh, _oh_ ,” Kitty suddenly understood, and she told her the current date and year.

“Good,” Jenny said, nodding decisively, “then I bargained well. I’m back before anything happens. And, look, I’ve run into you! Just the person I’m looking for!” Jenny’s wild look faded as she zeroed in on Kitty, seeming to realize who she was for the first time since their exchange began.

“Jenny, what do you mean?” Kitty asked. “Were you… Taken?” Kitty didn’t have a lot of experience with people who had been Taken. The people in her poetry classes that had been Taken came back… different. They always seemed to shy away from her, even if they had once been close friends.

“Yes, Taken, that’s a good word for it,” Jenny bobbed her head up and down a few more times than strictly necessary, and grabbed Kitty’s arm. She spoke with some difficulty, as if she was in pain from touching Kitty, and dragged the student up the stairs behind her. “Come with me and, whatever you do, don’t drop that stuffed cat.”

Jenny led Kitty through a series of hallways in the English building Kitty was sure she had never been down before. She could feel a low thrum of unease as they traveled deeper, seeping in from her left side, where she cradled her cat against her body. The passageways transitioned from the comforting, friendly plaster of the normal school hallway into brick and mortar that slowly grew more and more crumbling, until finally it felt almost like Kitty was walking on dirt. By that point, it was too dark to see, and all Kitty could do was allow Jenny’s arm to guide her deeper into the darkness. She had no choice; there was no way Kitty would be able to get herself out.

They stopped so abruptly that Kitty ran into Jenny’s back. She drew in a breath to ask one of the many questions teeming in her mind, but Jenny’s hand got there faster, covering her mouth so she was unable to make a sound.

“Shhhh!” Jenny quieted Kitty. “Let me do the talking.” Jenny removed her hand from Kitty’s mouth and released her arm from her grip.

Suddenly, Kitty could see. No, not just see. Kitty could _See_. With her newfound Sight, Kitty took in the dirt walls around them, glowing softly with small string lights: Their lights. There was a cluster of Them across the room, earthen in Their forms, tall and willowy but somehow also robust and strong. They were a collection of contrasting silhouettes; all at once fluid and moving with a core of iron--er, steel. For the first time since coming to EU, Kitty felt afraid. She was so scared, she could almost feel her stuffed cat trembling against her side.

“Where are we?” she whispered, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, which was closer to their heads than she would like, with tree roots hanging down every several feet.

“We’re Under,” Jenny replied grimly, turning to face the Beings in the corner.


	2. Chapter 2

As Jenny turned slowly towards the other side of the room, Kitty took a step back, glancing around wildly to see if there was any way to escape. Whatever path they had taken here had evidently been closed up behind them, as there were just smooth dirt walls the entire length of the round room. Kitty could feel her stuffed cat burning against her side, and she automatically petted it, trying to calm herself and _think_ through the anxiety pooling in her veins. 

Before Kitty could do something, anything, to escape, Jenny spoke. 

“Here they are.”

The Beings in the corner seemed to rustle with anticipation. One moved slowly forward, fluid on legs bent like tree roots. 

It appeared to speak, although if it was an Earthly language, Kitty was unfamiliar with it. Its voice was like wind rushing through the leaves, creaky like the joints of an old oak in a storm, bending but unwilling to snap. 

Jenny inclined her head in a slight bow of respect and stepped to the side, leaving Kitty in full view of the Folk. _Because that’s what they are_ , Kitty thought faintly, taking another shaky step backwards. _I’m about to be Taken. By Them._

She couldn’t believe she had lasted four and a half years without ever interacting with Them, only to be stolen away the day before her graduation. 

The One spoke again, although this time it seemed more like a hiss. 

Jenny’s head jerked up and she looked wildly between Kitty and the Being. “No, that wasn’t the deal. You told me you just wanted her protector, not her too. I told you I would only give you the cat!”

It did not seem pleased with Jenny, as Its branch-like arms twisted above Its head and seemed almost to thunder. Kitty flinched as It drove Itself towards Jenny, stopping just short of her. It seemed to sneer before dropping Its arms while still keeping them tensed. 

A scream built up in Kitty’s throat, but she swallowed it down as Jenny and It had a staredown, or as much of a staredown as possible when only one of the participants actually had eyes.

After a few moments, the Being relaxed fully. Jenny followed, casually rolling her shoulders and starting to turn away. The Being, almost as if it was stretching, lazily swept one of Its skinnier limbs towards Jenny and nonchalantly skewered her on the pointed end. 

This time, Kitty did scream.

Jenny heaved in breaths, opening her mouth in a crude attempt to form words, but all that came out was a bubble of blood. The Folk in the background seemed to titter, their leaves rustling in a way that sounded like laughter. 

Kitty screamed until her lungs were ragged. When she finally ran out of air, she heaved in another breath to scream again. All the while, her stuffed cat burned a hole into her side.

In the middle of Kitty’s second scream, when the blood started to run down Jenny’s shirt and pool at her feet and the light in her eyes started to dim, Kitty’s shirt caught on fire. 

Still screaming, Kitty looked down at her now-on-fire shirt in astonishment. _WHATTHE-nononononon-STOP DROP AND ROLL._ The memory from an assembly in the second grade came back to her, and she did just that, rolling on the ground until there was dirt in her mouth and she was panting. 

Kitty looked up from her position curled on the floor, taking in Jenny’s body that had been removed from the branch-arm and discarded in the corner like a rag doll. Kitty’s eyes traveled across the Others in the corner, who seemed to be intensely focused on her, and gradually trailed her gaze over to the Being that had killed Jenny, which was quickly advancing towards Kitty. _No, not me_ , she realized. It was making Its way towards her stuffed cat, which she had dropped a few feet away from her face when she had caught fire. 

Kitty winced and hauled herself onto her belly, trying to army-crawl to her cat, a futile attempt to reach her stuffed animal before It did. 

The Being picked up her cat, and Kitty flinched, her body feeling like it was on fire again. It held up her cat and shook it, Its leaves tinkling triumphantly as the Folk in the corner cheered with It. 

Kitty writhed on the floor, trapped in her own hurricane of pain. 

Kitty screamed a third time, a high-pitched screech of absolute pain, and her eyes rolled up in her head as she began convulsing. Right before she passed out, she saw a blindingly bright light begin to take over the room. 

~.~

Kitty was drowning in a sea of blankets and her own sweat, crying out for her mother. Instead, her father came rushing in. 

“Another nightmare, huh?” he asked gently, his kind smile the only thing 5-year-old Kitty could really focus on.

Young Kitty nodded, sniffling.

Her dad gathered her up in his arms. “I know your mom wishes she could be with you every day. But she gave her life to protect you in that car accident. We can’t let her sacrifice be for nothing, right?”

Young Kitty nodded again, holding tight to his pointer and middle fingers with her small, chubby hand. 

Her dad rocked her for a bit longer, then stood, untangling them both from her blankets. 

Young Kitty, who was almost back to sleep, made a soft noise of protest, opening her tired eyes to watch her father carry her down into the basement, where they had packed away all of her mom’s things. 

“Shhh,” her father soothed her, stroking her hair. “Your mom told me that she wanted to give this gift to you on your seventh birthday, but I think you may need it now.” He reached into one of the open cardboard boxes and pulled out a stuffed cat. It was gray and orange, with stripes that made it look almost like a tiger, and glass green eyes sewn on. “Your mother sewed this special for you. She told me that it held all of the love she had for you, because there was too much to fit in just her body. She told me that as long as you carry it with you and love it deeply, it will protect you.”

The cat had a heart made of iron. 

~.~

_As long as you carry it with you and love it deeply, it will protect you._

~.~

Kitty coughed when she woke up. Her eyes burned as she opened them, and she was soon able to see why. The Folk were on fire. They were making high keening sounds as They ran around, unsuccessfully trying to snuff out the thousands of tiny flames springing to life on Them. 

She weakly tried to sit up, attempting to take stock of her surroundings and see if there was any possible way she could get out of there. 

Suddenly, something with a warm mouth and a rough tongue grabbed her arm, swinging her up and around until she landed on something soft and corded with muscle.

Looking down, she saw she was seated on a tiger.

“It’s a tiger,” she rasped out loud dumbly, her voice husky from smoke inhalation. 

As if in response to her statement, the _tiger?? Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthef-_ turned to look at her over its shoulder. Its eyes glittered, the exact same color as the ones made of glass that she gazed at every night before falling asleep. 

“Oh,” she whispered faintly. “ _You’re_ a tiger.”

The tiger that was once her stuffed cat rumbled a laugh at that and turned to carry her through a passage that definitely was not there a few minutes ago. 

As her tiger carried her out into the sunlight, Kitty distantly thought that maybe she should stay an extra year… and change her major.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you to Rylee for proofing this, even if she has no idea what this webcomic is. This quarantine is less fun without you here.


End file.
